Both builders are activley building 104 boats an have recently optimised them for 104
The Hobie FX-Xtreme and the Nacra F17 (with new mast) are two recent examples of big manufacturers putting effort into 104.
That Hobie Extreme is a "Proust Sailing" project and not officially santioned or supported by Hobie Europe or Hobie in general. The standard Hobie FX-one (both 1-up and 2-up) has a rating of 1.035 under SCHRS which is lower then 1.040. The FX-one is a foundation boat of the F104 class ?
The Nacra 17 (or F17 as nacra would have it) is a singlehander with a SCHRS rating of 1.005 which is alot lower then the 1.04 rating and therefor NOT F104 compliant.
The Nacra 17 sailed as a 2-up boat with jib still has a SCHRS rating of 1.022, which is again faster then 1.04 and also not F104 compliant.
The "new" nacra 17 as specified by Nacra Europe is a singlehander with a SCHRS rating of 1.028 which is lower then 1.040; even with the smaller 17 sq. mtr. spi its rating is 1.034, thus making both new versions non F104 compliant.
The 2-up version of this "new" Nacra 17 has a rating of 1.047 under SCHRS and is already to be considered less race competitive then the true 1.040 rated boats which are typically 1.035-1.040 designs rounded off to 1.040. The difference being almost a minute per hour racing.
If this is "actively building 104 boats" then I don't want to know how it looks like when they are slacking on the job !
So my conclusion is that :
-A- You show yourself that neither Hobie or Nacra is interested in letting go of their Inter-17 and FX-one designs. By extension, nothing we do as F16's class will ever interest them seriously in this direction.
-B- Neither boats are F104 compliant as they are now and we have to take your word for it that they will be in the future. We have yet to se the "new' nacra 17 for 2-up to be measured. We have to trust their website supplied specs.
-C- There is no coordinated effort of Nacra and Hobie to go F104. It is more a case of luck where the F104 class happens to be close to were the Nacra 17 and FX-one already were before anybody coined the idea of F104.
-D- Everything else appears to be just rumours, gossip and wishful thinking.
If so then I'm done with this thread hijack and propose that both Macca and myself go back to the main topic which is the F16 future as the F16 members see it.
Wouter
